Wide Open Highway
by Whispatchet
Summary: Armada Rewritten. To find yourself on a strange planet is one thing. To find that there are others of your species on this strange planet is another. But the Racer doesn't want their company. That is, at least, until he met the Spy and the Berserker.


_The sparkling looked up with fear as the large beast of a mech loomed over him, red optics shining in the dark. He grinned as the young creature tried to scramble away, and pulled out a long blade._

_"Now now, little sparkling, you ain't getting away that easy." He cooed, evil ingrained in every syllable. He swung his sword just as the sparkling grabbed his creator's weapon and fired._

_The recoil and the brunt of the impact sent the two creatures skidding apart just enough to prevent fatal damage; the tip of the blade carved a deep gash in the face of the sparkling, over his right optic. Glass shattered and Energon flowed, and the sparkling screamed in pain..._

The mech snapped out of stasis and bolted upright, smacking his head on the low ceiling. He grasped at his helm and cursed.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow..."

He fell still for a moment before looking up. Where was he again? Oh. Right.

He shook his head. Same old shuttle. But, he had crashed, hadn't he? Looking around the cockpit, it certainly seemed like it. Outside the window, all he could see was brown. Space certainly was _not_ brown.

What was it? Rock? That was mostly grey though, wasn't it? Well, space rock was. Was this... fertile stone? Hell.

He pulled himself from his seat and headed out to the main body of his one man craft. The inside of the shuttle was intact... sort of. The computers and furniture, scarce as it may have been, was tossed around, panels had fallen out of the ceiling, and there was rubble everywhere. Not to mention the amount of accumulated dust everywhere and strange little wisps of stuff in the corners.

House cleaning, anyone?

But, realistically, what was the point of cleaning it up? He had no idea where he was, and as such, no idea if he could get any supplies around here. Heck, he could starve to death for all he knew. And from the looks of things, digging the ship out of the formation he was stuck in didn't seem likely.

Sighing, he headed for the door and pulled it open.

To his surprise, he was not met with a wall of fertile stone. Instead, he saw a wide cavity in the rock. Huh. So there was an air pocket down here too. That was... useful.

He wandered out of the ship, and, after a slight observational error where he nearly fell into the crevice between the ship's door and the floor of the cave, he examined his stone cell. It wasn't much, really. He figured he could dig through the stuff to get out, presuming there was actually something on the other side worth getting to. Of course, he had no way of telling how thick the stone was in any given place...

Or so he thought.

As he wandered around the perimeter of the cave, he came across a small divot in the stone. From this divot, he found, streams of golden light, flowing into the cave.

A weak point! Freedom! Horrible, wonderful freedom!

With a movement that was fluid thanks to many years of repetition, the black mech pulled out a well used weapon; an old fashioned Cybertronian Bolt Gun, and aimed at the stone around the opening. He offloaded round after round at the rock, until his gun could fire no more due to lack of power. Then, stowing the weapon, he crept forward, and dug through the rubble with naught but his bare hands.

Breaking through the last thin layer of stone, the black mech collapsed onto a soft green substance that was covering the ground around the –he looked back to check- cliff, his ship was buried in. Looking back down at the green stuff, he ran his hand over it. It was... strange stuff. All fluid but not a liquid. Curious indeed.

Pulling himself to his feet, he wandered forwards. Apart from the strange green ground covering, there were other odd things around; these strange, soft looking structures that were as tall as he was, brown on the bottom, and more flighty green stuff in puffs on top.

Lots of little critters ran out of his path as he walked, so not to get crushed by his comparatively large feet, and others flew out of the green puffs at head height as he pushed them aside to get by.

Suddenly, there was a part in the puffy green and brown structures.

There was still the odd ground cover, but in this clearing, it was broken by something that he recognised. A road. A road! Sweet Primus, a ROAD!!!

He couldn't help but look happy to see the black stretch of asphalt. He was a road mech by build and breed; he lived for speeding down roads like this. So what if the roads on Cybertron weren't made of black concrete stuff. This was a road. This was something he could deal with.

Perhaps it had been worth digging himself out of the cave after all.

Well, now he had a road, but, what to do with it? He wasn't on Cybertron; that much was painfully clear. He would be noticed by the natives, and likely scare them spitless if he wandered around without a local alternate mode much longer.

This was an odd road, the mech thought suddenly. It curved in from amongst the puffy things, came through the clearing, and then curved out into a bulbous shape at the end, which was marked with a whole bunch of white lines at the end.

Was that... parking?

Must have been. Because, sitting there, haphazardly parked across three spaces with a 'P' duct taped to the boot and hood of the thing, was a Peugeot 307. He had no idea what that was, but it had wheels, a sleek design, and it just screamed at him, 'take me, take me!'

Never one to turn down such a reasonable offer, he brought an arm up, and flipped out a little scanner, which roved over the vehicle, taking in every aspect of its structure while he grinned to himself.

No more than two minutes later, a black version of the car screamed out of the parking lot in fifth gear, the glossed black paint glinting in the sun, and a red insignia staring out from the hood.

'What a nice place.' He thought, shooting down the road as fast as he dared in the slightly crowded environment.

Sure, he could go faster, but there was the chance that he hit something. He was not heavily armoured. Ergo, if he was part of a collision, he'd look more like a giant aluminium can under the gravity of Jupiter rather than the warrior he was. It was not a mental image he liked to entertain, nor was it a fate he cared to tempt, so, he kept himself to a... relatively... safe pace.

The brown and green broke after a while, giving way to stretches of nothing but low set green. More of the swishy green ground covering? They quite liked it on this planet, it seemed. As the terrain seemed to flatten, the road seemed to widen under him, growing from one lane in each direction to four in each.

This planet certainly knew how to please a mech.

Seeing no obstacles to his whim, he put his preverbal foot down, and screamed down the highway at four hundred kilometres an hour.

Of course, his pleasure could not go uninterrupted, as he noticed more vehicles appearing in the far distance. Grudgingly, the mech slowed down. Not to _their_ incomparably slow speed, but slow enough to bring his manoeuvrability back up so that he could avoid collisions as needed.

But that didn't mean he was going to make life easy for any of these creatures. He shot by the natives, ducking and swerving around them, not using the side lights which he figured were for informing the others of his intent.

He was an alien robot, what did he care? The natives screamed what he guessed were profanities out the windows of their slow transport, and beeped their horns at him in anger. He merely chuckled. It was just a game for him. And if they thought they could stop him... well, good luck to them.

He didn't know what kind of thing made the vehicles he now wore, nor the ones that were similar which he was passing. He could see their operators as he passed though; small, and bipedal by the feel of the controls. Or, maybe tripedal, if you wanted to get creative. Made him wish he had a name for the race though.

As he throttled down the highway, a broad vehicle tinted a strong chrome appeared in the distance. The tint of the vehicle, a powerful Nissan Titan, reflected the sunlight as it headed its own way down the road, minding its own business.

A set of purple shades hid the blue eyes of the operator as she checked the rear-view mirror, before resuming looking forward at the road. She tapped her free foot, while the other remained firm on the gas, refusing to become irritated at the highway's ability to make you go 50 miles faster than the speed limit because of everyone's impatience to get somewhere.

A series of honks and screams from behind caused her to ease up on the pedal, checking the side mirrors. Turning down the stereo, she heard a humming. No, she mentally corrected, it wasn't a hum... it was a roar... the roar of a high performance engine, the owner of which just shot past at was at _least_ double her current speed, cutting her off!

"What the hell was that?!" She shouted, glaring at the aft section of the offending vehicle.

Black was nice on some cars, and apparently the driver knew the black on his car was more than nice. Beautiful even, assuming she even liked black. She stared at it for a while before checking her clock.

She was already late anyway. Her brother could wait. So, with a haughty sniff and a tight grip on the steering wheel, she merged into the right lane, speeding up until she was hood to hood with the black car. Glancing over, she did a double take as she realized there was no driver.

"Great."

The female frowned at the car in the lane beside her, unable to determine why exactly a car was driverless. It _was_ a full moon tonight, so perhaps... but it was nowhere near time for it to be out.

There was only one other explanation...

- - -

The black mech was indeed surprised to see the silver construct ascending to his speed, and keeping at his hood for a time.

"Well well, there is a creature with courage." He mused to himself. Had he a mouth in this form, he would have smirked. Raising his voice so that the operator of the silver behemoth could hear, he issued a challenge. "You're good! But I'm better!"

With a rev of his overpowered engine, he zipped forward a distance, before holding speed and letting the native catch up. "Do you think you can beat me?"

- - -

The female driver of the Nissan stared at the black car in the next lane, her eyes wide behind the lenses of her sunglasses. What. The. Hell.

That empty car had just spoken to her.

So much for the 'Full Moon' theory.

She watched as the car zipped ahead and then let her catch up... her shocked expression slowly turning into a frown.

"Showboater." She muttered to herself. Rolling down the window, she tilted her head to look down her nose at the car. "You're missin' a little more than you realise on this side of the road, bud!"

There was a moment of silence between the two, as the spoken word passed over audio receptors and ears, and the words unsaid sunk right in for both parties.

Challenge _accepted._

A huff later, the female slammed her right foot down on the pedal that she already had underfoot with some pressure, and she, along with her car, shot down the highway, at speeds that were illegal just about everywhere.

The black mech chuckled to himself as he watched the silver vehicle pull away from him, heading down the wide, straight road with brash abandon. It made him smile on the inside. This species, whatever they were, seemed to be easily provoked.

_What fun._

He allowed her a few more seconds to race ahead, before he put his own pedal down, and screamed across the asphalt, taking a few short minutes to close the gap between himself and his competitor, shooting past the Titan a black and silver streak.

The female driver jumped in her seat as the car throttled past, a chuckle on the wind that trailed behind it in a billowing ribbon of air.

"Haaaa..."

"The punk is good." A masculine voice mused, the deep tones seeming to come from all around the female driver.

"He's just a punk." The female responded, not being at all impressed. She made an attempt to urge the Nissan further, pressing with all her strength against the pedal, the needle on the dash shaking wildly at the further-most side of the speedometer.

She gained a little distance on him, and the mech seemed greatly amused that she was still trying. He swept his sensors forward again, swerving to miss a slow moving van. Hang on an astrotick...

Why, that van seemed to be speeding down the highway too. And it was a mightily unusual van too: all white with red crosses on the sides, with flashing lights on top... and it was making a high pitched wail... much like an alarm or a siren...

Wait.

Suddenly sucking a vast amount of air into his intakes in a gasp, the black mech focused his sensors, all of them, further down the road. Oh _pit._

A few kilometres down the highway, kilometres that he was reducing at a rapid speed, laying on its side across all four lanes, was a long, thick vehicle. The turned over transport was laying in such a way that there was no way to slip past it...

"_Slaggit!!!"_ The mech cursed, slamming down on the brake pedal.

The female in the silver Nissan had spotted the tipped over semitrailer, her blue eyes widening. Her gaze snapped over to the black car, and as her opponent made a valiant attempt at stopping, the sunlight sparked a glare over the red mark emblazoned on the hood. Huh.

But if what she figured was right, and she feared it was, he wouldn't be able to avoid the trailer. He was going to plough right into it!

Shaking her head a little, she let go of the steering wheel and slipped across into the passenger seat.

"I need a bifocal attachment. Now." She mentioned, as she popped open the glove box, pulling out a small black wallet.

Free of her control but by no means out of it, he Nissan swerved in the direction of the black car, and there was a hiss of hydraulics as a silver hook in the shape of a wing pulled out from under the cab, latching itself to the front bumper of the black car.

The truck lurched its steering wheel to one side and hit its brakes at the same time, thrusting its bed out into the grass that adorned the roadside, coasting both it and the black car to a steady stop.

There was a stunned stillness from all parties involved, the mech, the female, and the silver construct, all three turning their attention towards the trailer, no more than two and a half kilometres away from their current spot.

The door of the silver Nissan popped open, and the female hopped out, tossing her brown hair over her shoulder and shaking her head. Her body was clothed in casual garb; a dark coloured tank top, cargo pants decked out in black, white and grey camouflage deco, and a simple black jacket. Curious though, she seemed to have a long, white, feline tail, which poked out from under her shirt and jacket, and hung lazily behind her.

"For the love of bloody Hell and all its Angels..." She muttered, raising her hand to the glasses that shaded her eyes and pushing them up, perching them on the top of her head.

She strode over to the black car, a Peugeot 306, she noted, and reached down under the car's hood, unhooking the wing shaped appendage that had saved the smaller automobile, and walking back towards her vehicle with it so it could retract and vanish from sight without any tangles in the cable.

"It looked a little bent, Jehovah." She said, looking towards the cab of the Nissan. "I'll have to fix it when we get back." The female turned her attention back to the Peugeot, who appeared to still be sitting in stunned stupor.

She smiled a little, and crossed the distance between them once more, this time reaching a hand out and giving him a few rough pats on the hood. She felt the car jolt in surprise as he came out of his trance, and, before he could form the thoughts to turn into words, she brought the black wallet up and let it fall open in a very FBI manner, allowing the golden pin that was contained within to be seen by the metal creature.

He stared at it, recognising the symbol it displayed with ease; he bore the same symbol on his hood in bold red.

"W-who are you?" He said, finding access to his vocaliser again.

"You can call me 'Human', if it suits your fancy. My name, however, is Burmuse. This," She paused and motioned towards the silver Titan still sitting on the grass behind her. "... Is Jehovah." The Titan waved a windshield wiper at the Peugeot as she spoke.

"We work for the Autobots. We were on our way to the base when you decided to moon us in broad daylight. Do you all have a habit of breaking the speed limit?" She wondered.

"We might." The black car answered. "But then again, I'm not much of an Autobot."

Burmuse arched a brow at the black car's response. "Does Optimus Prime know you?" She asked.

The black car was silent for a moment, before he broke into quiet chuckles. Chuckles with a hint of irony, in them, perhaps?

"Don't tell me Oh-So-Noble Prime is on this planet!" He exclaimed.

Burmuse frowned and glanced at Jehovah behind her. The Nissan shrugged on his tires, and she returned her gaze to the Peugeot. "You got a name, hot rod?"

"Sprintshift." Came the answer, a sort of pride shining through in his voice.

"Huh." Burmuse frowned at him. "We shouldn't stay here. Wouldn't do to have cops see us in the ditch, just to find out there were giant robots tromping around. Follow us to the base." She said, turning back towards Jehovah and opening the door. She paused and looked back at the car, as he had offered no answer.

She shook her head and climbed into Jehovah's cab, shutting the door behind her. As she pulled her seatbelt over her chest, Jehovah rumbled his engine, and he pulled off the grass.

Sprintshift grumbled to himself as he watched the silver vehicle head back onto the road. "'Follow us to the base' she says." He muttered to himself as he gunned his own engine."You can forget that!" He added with a shout, his tires slipping slightly on the damp purchase of the grass as he accelerated too much for the situation he was in. Eventually finding traction on the organic carpet, the black Peugeot shot out onto the highway, discounting the honks and shouts of protest from the natives that he cut off in the process.

Burmuse turned her head to look at the black mech, shaking her head as he took off in the opposite direction.

"Admiral?" Jehovah asked lightly.

"That's an affirmative." Burmuse replied, chuckling as she tossed the wallet back into the glove box.

There was a whir of hydraulics from somewhere below the rear seats, and the already massive Nissan began to transform and lift off the road. Wheels folded away into the body of the vehicle, and wings folded out. The completed transformation left a sleek chrome Leer Jet rising on a boastfully wide wingspan and searing the air behind it with its afterburners with a loud hiss. The now airborne Jehovah moved easily through the airwaves over the highway until he hovered right over Sprintshift's hood, his thrusters searing the air behind him.

"What the PIT?!" Sprintshift cursed, slamming on his brakes and swerving to one side. "What the frak are you trying to do, y' crazy glitch?!" He shot off in the other direction, trying to get away from the jet. "I'm not goin' within ten feet of that place, do y'hear? I can't stand you upper-class _slagging city mechs!!!_"

Burmuse shook her head. There was a video screen before her on Jehovah's 'dashboard', on it, the image of Autobot leader, Optimus Prime. "He reminds me of Hot Shot when you guys first got here." The woman mentioned, chewing on a fingernail.

"Oi!" Prime was half pushed to one side as a yellow mech popped onto the screen, looking and sounding rather indignant. "I heard that!"

"Well, he is. Reckless, no talent for defining good advice from bad, and certainly a speed demon." She grinned at him. "Are you claiming you're not these things?"

Hot Shot grumbled and slunk off screen, Optimus filling the screen once more.

"I'm not fond of forcing residence on him, or anyone else." The Prime said worriedly. "However, he seems like he would be a problem in terms of secrecy."

"Righto Captain." Burmuse said amusedly. "We'll bring him in. Say Hi to Fred for me." The woman looked down at the black car on the road below them. He seemed to be watching them out of paranoia.

But all his supposed paranoia did him no good, as the Leer Jet extended a pair of Hawk like claws from below his cockpit, and swooped down on the car, grabbing his back bumper and pulling Sprintshift up into the air.

The Peugeot let out a yelp as his tires lost their purchase on the road. He swept his sensors upward and spotted Burmuse leaning out of Jehovah's window.

"So, tell me." She called down to him. "Do you prefer long walks on the beach or the sun setting at thirty thousand feet?"

"PUT ME DOWN!!!" The Autobot roared, enraged and terrified at the same time. He wasn't at all fond of heights. "PUT ME DOWN DAMNIT! I'm not a Deception, so leave me ALONE!!!"

"Sorry sport, but orders dictate that you are to report to Autobot Headquarters within the minute. So power down your visuals and enjoy the ride. Would you like Beethoven or Bach?"

Jehovah's human companion gave him a rough slap on the side. "Enough of that, Jev."

"Copy that." The Triple-Changer responded with a laugh, curving over the highway towards the mountains.

As they shot between them, the land became a barren desert, marked only various sets of footprints in the sand. The jet banked around, and faced the mountains again from the other side. A small forest edged the range, melding with the red dust of the desert. At the base of one of the taller mountains, there was what appeared to be an abandoned mine entrance. Jehovah dived towards the mine, letting go of Sprintshift as he neared the ground. The black car froze up and let out a shout as he was dropped, and graced his landing on his tires with "Oof!" and a sound that sounded suspiciously like a cough.

Jehovah soared vertical before heading back towards the highway. "You have coordinates to a fast food restaurant. I can't have Fred thinking his sister forgot his fifteenth meal of the day." Jehovah laughed as they spiralled through the air, leaving the car to his own devices at the entrance of the base.

Sprintshift looked up at the jet as he vanished into the distance, and growled. "Bastard." He grumbled. Quickly, he checked over his systems and suspension to make sure nothing had been damaged from being dropped so carelessly. Finding no damage, he slipped into first gear and began to pull out. "At least I can get out of here before some other high breed shows up."

"Y'know, we generally like a 'hello' before you drop in." A cheerful voice said from behind him, echoing in the end of the mine.

The black car stopped, and directed his sensors behind him.

Two points of sky blue light shone in the darkness of the mine, shimmering over the exterior of the mech they belonged to. Said owner stepped forward, revealing a young mech with a smiling face.

Sprintshift groaned.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Whispy: FINALLY.

Chapter one is finished. And I like the rewrite. I wish I had the motivation to rewrite all of my stories so they don't suck.

Anyway. Moving on.


End file.
